From our senior editor trentgilliss:
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that.”
~Martin Luther King, Jr.It’s the enterprising, creative minds of this world who provide the most exquisite examples of solidarity when adversity confronts us as a people. I’m loving these illuminated messages of hope projected on the side of the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
More are featured on Fast Company’s Co.Exist blog.
When I’m trying to explain to people what I think is grand and noble about movement, I say that the reason it is our most valuable connector as human beings is because that person onstage, who has a body similar to ours, is using that body in proxy for us. That kind of transference and connection is a very poetic way of saying something that I think the doctor’s given his life to understanding: how an idea about movement can actually be felt. This fact is the way that I’ve been able to deal with issues of identity. And the making of art, the sharing of it, is in some ways — healing sounds way too sentimental — but it bridges the gap between individuals. When I read some of Dr. Sacks’s meditations on how the brain works, in a way he demystifies these things that I have a feeling about. But in another way he encourages me to look with more courage at the physical world.
Identity. Just another one of the paths we can take when we finally orchestrate an interview with the great choreographer for On Being. Oh, and we will do so one day. *smile*
(via trentgilliss)
We get a fair number of people asking us to include more overt atheists in our weekly public radio program and podcast. If you’re one of those listeners, this week’s conversation with theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss will be right up your alley.
He’s an energetic, witty thinker in the New Atheist movement who takes aim — fairly or unfairly — at religious believers. But, more importantly, his way of thinking about science as an integral part of our cultural formation and how many of us are let off the hook all-too-easily when we don’t know basic scientific principles.
His latest book is A Universe from Nothing: Why There is Something Rather than Nothing. And if you’re at all a sci-fi fan, then The Physics of Star Trek is a great read for you.
~Trent Gilliss, senior editor
“It’s so much darker when a light goes out than it would have been if it had never shone.”
~John Steinbeck from The Winter of Our Discontent
Photo by Pras Dunn/ Flickr, cc by-nc 2.0
I fear the copious media coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court’s handling of same-sex marriage might drowned out a pivotal case the Court is hearing right now. At stake is who owns the stuff of which we are made.
As Nina Totenberg reports for NPR, Myriad Genetics and ACLU are arguing about the patentability of our own genetic material. As Christopher Hansen of the American Civil Liberties Union argues:
“A patent isn’t a reward for effort. A patent is a reward for invention. And Myriad didn’t invent anything. The gene exists in the body. All Myriad did is find it.”
But, it may not be as simple as that. Research companies want to be compensated for their efforts. They want to ensure that their work is protected from other profiteers. But, to what extent? Can human genes themselves be patented, or the mechanisms behind them? What is the right of companies like Myriad Genetics to be rewarded for their efforts that contributes to better clinical care and our social good? What are the ethical and moral responsibilities of these companies to put patients first and not keep them from their own genetic information?
Big questions with huge decisions that will impact us and our children.
Truly inspiring to be able to come here. Anne was a great girl. Hopefully she would have been a belieber.
~Justin Bieber
Yes, according to the Facebook page of the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, the pop star wrote these fine words in their guestbook while visiting this weekend.
Check out the chatter over this on Tablet magazine’s page. It’s passionate… and all over the board.
~Trent Gilliss, senior editor
Tough call: cherry blossoms in Tokyo or magnolias in New York City?
This from travelbyfoldingamap:
I think magnolias top cherry blossoms this year #spring #prospectpark #brooklyn #magnolias #nyc #flowers #pretty #bloom #beautifulday
What a great way to wake up this Saturday morning. Love Hamza El Din. Thank you, givemypoorheartease:
Al Oud: Instrumental and Vocal Music of Nubia (Vanguard 1965).
~Trent Gilliss, senior editor
Cherry blossoms in Ueno.
Crosses, crescents, and stars on the National Mall in Washington, DC to commemorate victims of gun violence since Newtown.
(h/t to Tiffany Stanley)
